Hi Shannon,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked Stage 3: I’m actively figuring out what my interests are by trying one or more of them out in some way .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were universalism, self-direction, and hedonism.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was conscientiousness.
You said your top three talents were social, musical, and artistic / spatial.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to securing an internship for 2024 .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in mindfullness .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt receptive when receiving critical feedback, and receptive when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as Health .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to Other .
In one word, you said it made you feel thankful .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
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Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
| |
| Goals are a destination but success is a journey |
| Your interest are an emotion. |
| Curiosity calls |
| Understanding the difference between deliberative practice and WOOP. I want to reach flow. |
| Most successful people build a habit and you can't say "just do it." Take action that satisfies your goal. |
| Role models give you information and motivation. You should have multiple mentors in your life! |
| It's important know that you have resources inside you and you should recognize moments in which you're a taler, giver, or matching |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
| |
| May Lee |
| Dear Shannon,
I want to express my deep gratitude for having you as a remarkable teammate on Team 10. Working alongside you has been an absolute pleasure, and I couldn't be happier to be a part of this dream team. Your openness and candid sharing about your family have not only brought us closer but also highlighted your incredible resilience and sense of responsibility. I remain genuinely impressed by the close bond you maintain with your many siblings and your unwavering commitment to being a fantastic role model for them. Your ability to balance academic excellence with caring for your younger siblings is truly admirable, showcasing your extraordinary drive and dedication.
As for your Discovery project presentation, I am immensely proud of the journey you shared about exploring different concentrations at Wharton. Your willingness to embrace change and follow your passions is inspiring. Your narrative beautifully conveyed the importance of self-discovery and the courage it takes to pursue one's true interests. I'm thrilled for you as you embark on your summer internship in the cosmetics and beauty industry, aligning perfectly with your passion. It's evident that this opportunity resonates with your aspirations, and I have no doubt you'll shine in this environment. Here's to your continued success and the bright future that lies ahead!
Warm regards,
May |
| Kevin Liu |
| Shannon’s calm and confident nature brought a unique perspective to our team each week. She is very thoughtful and was always willing to speak her mind when talking to us, which allowed our group conversations to become more deep and personal. Her thoughtful contributions regarding her opinions and personal experiences are evidence of her maturity, which is not surprising given that she is the oldest of several siblings. I also appreciate Shannon’s friendliness – she would always make an effort to get to know the rest of the team as more than just classmates, sometimes even sharing her cherished gummy worms with us (and not just the ones she didn’t like, either☺). I’m grateful for her kindness and her contributions to our group, as well as for the fact that she trusted us enough to keep things real with us.
Listening to Shannon’s Discovery Project told me even more about her interests and goals. It was great to see her start focusing more on the interests she enjoys pursuing, as shown by her willingness to learn cello and her decision to switch to Legal Studies as a concentration. I learned from her discussions about alumni meetings and an upcoming summer internship that Shannon was especially passionate about her career interests in real estate and skincare, which are further evidence of her ambition and initiative regarding her top-level goals. The combination of all these qualities made Shannon a very valued member of our group, and I know she’ll bring these qualities to the table in whatever future endeavors she chooses to pursue beyond Grit Lab. |
We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.